SurroundByUs.com

I was away for a week, but I'll investigate this tonight.

I've tried to approach this scientifically....so this may get tedious. IN this post I'm going to lay out the test tracks and the conditions. In the next post or two, the results of combining different options of variables. A pity there's no way to post a table...

First, I took a short , apparently normal 6channel 48kHz .dts file (foobar shows the bitrate as 1510 kbps, AVR playback shows it as a plain, not 96/24 , DTS audio), ripped from the video layer of a DVD-audio disc. I used Audiomuxer to make a .dts.wav file from it. I loaded both of those into foobar2k, along with the stereo (2ch) .flac version of the same song, ripped from CD. So, three versions of the same track. (FWIW, the track is 'Five Percent For Nothing' from Yes' Fragile).

The constant and variable conditions are :
Laptop --running Windows 7
Connected to: an AVR by S/PDIF optical, or no connection

internal soundcard (Realtek High Definition Audio, ALC3888)
/default output: variable (options are Speakers or Digital)
/Supported formats: DTS/DD/WMA
/Sample Rates Supported: 44.1/48.0/96 kHz
/Levels & Balance: 100
/Enhancements: all disabled
/Dolby HT: off
/Advanced soundcard options:
//Default format: 2 channel 16 bit 44100
//Exclusive mode:
///exclusive control: YES
///Exclusive app priority: YES


Foobar v 0.9.6.9
Preferences:
/Playback
//volume control: full
//replagain: none/none
/Output
//device: variable (options are Null, DS: Digital, DS: Speakers, WASAPI: Digital, WASAPI: Speakers)
//Buffer: 870 ms
//Format: 16 bit no dither, or 24 bit

/SPDIF
//enabled for AC3, DTS,
//variable: (options are WaveOut or DirectSound)
//Allow 44 as 48 OFF

I can note in advance that all results were the same whether foobar output was set to 16 bit or 24 bit. So I'll just report results for 16-bit foobar output.

I will show combinations as :

laptop output option/foobar output option [6ch.dts result/6ch dts.wav result/2ch.flac result]

and YES means correct output, 'silent' means the track was playing but there was no sound, and error message popups are shown in quotes.


1. With the laptop connected by optical SPDIF out to an AVR, and foobar SPDIF output preference set to "Use DirectSound"

Digital/Digital:DS [YES/white noise/YES]
Digital/Digital:WASAPI ['Unrecoverable playback error: Device in use (0x8889000A)'/white noise/YES]
Digital/Null [YES/silence/silence]
Digital/Speakers:DS [YES/silence/silence]
Digital/Speakers:WASAPI [YES/silence/silence]
Speakers/Digital:DS ['Unable to open item for playback (Sound card driver has refused SPDIF format!)' plus white noise/white noise/YES]
Speakers/Digital:WASAPI ['Unable to open item for playback (Sound card driver has refused SPDIF format!)' plus white noise/white noise/YES]
Speakers/Null ['Unable to open item for playback (Sound card driver has refused SPDIF format!)'/silence/silence]
Speakers/Speakers:DS ['Unable to open item for playback (Sound card driver has refused SPDIF format!)'/silence/silence]
Speakers/Speakers:WASAPI ['Unable to open item for playback (Sound card driver has refused SPDIF format!)'/silence/silence]


2: connected to AVR with by optical SPDIF , with foobar SPDIF preference set to "Use WavOut"

Digital/Digital:DS [YES/white noise/YES]
Digital/Digital:WASAPI ['Unrecoverable playback error: Device in use (0x8889000A)'/white noise/YES]
Digital/Null [YES/silence/silence]
Digital/Speakers:DS [YES/silence/silence]
Digital/Speakers:WASAPI [YES/silence/silence]
Speakers/Digital:DS [YES/white noise/YES]
Speakers/Digital:WASAPI ['Unrecoverable playback error: Device in use (0x8889000A)'/white noise/YES]
Speakers/Null [YES/silence/silence]
Speakers/Speakers:DS [YES/silence/silence]
Speakers/Speakers:WASAPI [YES/silence/silence]

and now unconnected;any sound is coming from the laptop speakers. ('no play;' means the file did not play,
i.e., the foobar2k seekbar did not move)

basically as one might expect, the multichannel audio files never played through stereo laptop speakers, but the fail behaviors were different under different conditions....


3. unconnected, SPDIF preference set to 'Use DirectSound'
Digital/Digital:DS [no play/silence/silence]
Digital/Digital:WASAPI [Unrecoverable playback error: Device in use (0x8889000A)/silence/silence]
Digital/Null [silence/silence/silence]
Digital/Speakers:DS [silence/white noise/YES]
Digital/Speakers:WASAPI [silence/white noise/YES]
Speakers/Digital:DS [no play/silence/silence]
Speakers/Digital:WASAPI [Unrecoverable playback error: Device in use (0x8889000A)/silence/silence]
Speakers/Null [silence/silence/silence]
Speakers/Speakers:DS [silence/white noise/YES]
Speakers/Speakers:WASAPI [silence/white noise/YES]



4. unconnected, SPDIF preference set to 'Use WavOut'
Digital/Digital:DS [no play/silence/silence]
Digital/Digital:WASAPI [Unrecoverable playback error: Device in use (0x8889000A)/silence/silence]
Digital/Null [silence/silence/silence]
Digital/Speakers:DS [silence/white noise/YES]
Digital/Speakers:WASAPI [silence/white noise/YES]
Speakers/Digital:DS [no play/silence/silence]
Speakers/Digital:WASAPI [Unrecoverable playback error: Device in use (0x8889000A)/silence/silence]
Speakers/Null [silence/silence/silence]
Speakers/Speakers:DS [silence/white noise/YES]
Speakers/Speakers:WASAPI [silence/white noise/YES]

Did you have a look at the latest of Foobar, i.e. I have tested everything with this version and that one seems to work.
Do not forget to download as well the latest , and you install it through File/Preferences/Components and then click Install. Point to the zip file that you have just downloaded and then click on the Apply button. This is different then with previous DTS Encoder versions since this version does not use the DSP service anymore.

IMHO he doesn't want a dts decoder (I think you meant decoder, not encoder) because he is going SPDIF out to an HT. The HT is doing the dts decoding.

What he does need, and is sometimes hard to achieve with windows, is bit perfect playback.

@ Krabapple, am I understanding your set up correctly?

If you are using this setup to playback DVDs then your sound card is probably setup for 48Khz. Are you only using this for DVDs and DTS sound files from DVDs?

If not it will probably be easier to get a spam USB 2nd soundcard for 44.1 Khz (CDs and DTS CDs) playback, such as the M-Audio Transit, vs. switching the soundcard settings back and forth. Assuming you have another SPDIF input on your HT. Beware that a lot of sound cards won't do SPDIF @ 44.1Khz only at 48 or 96.